On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your
Holy Priest, depending on the type of damage your group
is receiving. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc.
in order to minmax your healing output and your mana efficiency. All our
content is updated for World of Warcraft —
Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1.5.

1. Rotation for Holy Priests

Healing is in great part based on your ability to react to the damage that
the group takes, and as such, there is no set rotation. Rather, you must
understand what spells are best suited to the different situations that can
occur during a raid encounter.

Below, you will find the optimal use of your abilities, and it will be up
to you to then combine them efficiently in combat.

1.1. Raid Healing

Raid healing is primarily focused around AoE group healing, as outlined
below. A lot of your decision making will be based on incoming damage and the
cooldowns you have available. It is better to use your cooldowns early and
often, than it is to save them for unknown future situations.

There are two main playstyles for raid healing and which one you follow
depends on your Tier-90 talent choice of either Binding Heal or
Circle of Healing.

Be mindful when using Halo as this spell not only heals your allies,
but also damages enemies it hits. On some encounters you may have dangerous
enemies that are being crowd-controlled and the damage from Halo may break this
crowd-control.

If talented, Holy Word: Salvation should be used during a period of
heavy raid wide damage. Keep in mind, however, that your raid leader may
instruct you to use it a very specific time.

These next two sections outline the priority you should follow in raids. You
should not cast a spell that will mostly overheal, so keep this in mind as
working through the priority list and skip an item if there is likely to be
significant overheal.

1.1.1. Circle of Healing Priority

When talented into Circle of Healing and raid healing, your priority
should be as follows:

1.2. Dungeon Healing

Dungeon healing is primarily focused around Flash Heal healing
multiple allies at once through the Trail of Light talent, and
supplementing this with regular use of your cooldown-based abilities. A lot of
your decision making will be based on incoming damage and the cooldowns you have
available. It is better to use your cooldowns early and often than it is to
save them for unknown future situations.

Below is the priority you should follow in dungeons. You should not
cast a spell that will mostly overheal, so keep this in mind as you work through
the priority list and skip an item if there is likely to be significant
overhealing.

Dealing damage while in dungeons is often overlooked by healers. While any
additional damage is beneficial to your group, it should not come at the cost of
keeping your group alive, which is your main priority. Smite is your
main damage dealing ability, costs no Mana and can proc Surge of Light, if
talented. In situations where Mana is not a concern, you can also cast
Holy Word: Chastise and Holy Fire on cooldown.

While Flash Heal is a fairly Mana-expensive spell to be casting a
lot, during dungeons you get frequent breaks from combat between pulls that you
can use to regenerate Mana by "drinking" Mana regenerating food.

2. Cooldown Usage for Holy Priests

As a Holy Priest, you have three cooldowns. Here is how you should use
them:

Divine Hymn should be used during periods of very intense raid
damage. Keep in mind, however, that your raid leader may instruct you to use it
a very specific time.

Guardian Spirit should be used depending on many factors,
including on your raid leader's instructions. If you do not have to save
Guardian Spirit for a specific event, then just use it as a "life-saver" on
the tank or another raid member who needs it.

Symbol of Hope should be used towards the end of a raid encounter
to give the highest potential mana back to all healers in your group. A good
guide is either when you are at 20% mana, or the boss is at 20% health remaining.

You can read more about how to best use these cooldowns, and about the
cooldowns and abilities granted by your talents, in our
detailed cooldown section.

3. Optional Read: Mastering Your Holy Priest

The above information should allow you to perform at a high level as a Holy
Priest. In the following sub-sections, we offer a few additional pieces of
information and we expand on some concepts further.

While you do not need to actively manage this mechanic in any way, it is
very important that you are aware of its existence and that you constantly
monitor the remaining cooldowns of your Holy Words, so that you can use them
as soon as they become available.

3.2. Healing Cooldowns in Detail

Your healing cooldowns require a bit more explanation in order to ensure
that you can make the best of them.

3.2.1. Divine Hymn

Divine Hymn will heal all raid members within 40 yards over
8 seconds, and also increase the healing they receive during that time by
10%.

Keep in mind that the spell is channelled, so you cannot perform other
actions while casting it.

Generally, your raid leader will assign you to use this spell at a certain
time in the fight, in order to counter a heavy burst of damage. If this is the
case, make sure your spell is available at that time.

Otherwise, you should simply try to find a moment when using this spell is
beneficial. Most often, this will happen during a period of very intense raid
damage.

3.2.2. Guardian Spirit

Guardian Spirit is one of the most useful tools you can bring to a
raid. Using it places a buff on the target, which lasts for 10 seconds and
increases all healing received by the target by 60%. If the target receives
a killing blow during this time, they will not die and instead be healed for
40% of their maximum health, consuming the Guardian Spirit effect.

While you can use this on any raid member who is about to die and whom you
have no other means of saving, it is by far better used on a tank who is about
to take a large amount of damage. You should make sure to communicate with the
tank and other healers, in order to ensure that you do not use multiple
powerful cooldowns at the same time.

You can also use this spell to allow tanks (or other players) to survive an
ability that should have otherwise been avoided, either as part of your raid's
strategy or to recover from a mistake.

Keep in mind that your raid leader may assign you to use this spell for a
specific event in the encounter.

3.2.3. Symbol of Hope

Symbol of Hope is a unique cooldown that provides all healers in your
raid with mana when you channel it. The amount of mana gained by each target is
dependant on how much mana they are missing so this ability is often best used
towards the end of encounters

If you are unsure of when to use it, a general rule of thumb is to use it
either when your remaining mana is below 20% or the bosses remaining hitpoints
are below 20%

3.3. Talents

3.3.1. Tier 3 Talents

When talented into Guardian Angel, you should be aiming to use
Guardian Spirit regularly throughout the encounter on high-damage
targets, which are usually the tanks. The additional healing provided by having
Guardian Spirit on them benefits not only their self healing, but also healing
from other healers.

3.3.2. Tier 5 Talents

You should make sure to use Surge of Light procs quickly, so that
new charges are not wasted.

Circle of Healing should be cast as often as it will do healing, which
on most encounters, will be nearly as soon as it comes off cooldown.

3.3.3. Tier 6 Talents

When using Benediction, it is important you focus on casting
Prayer of Mending as often as possible to maximise the benefit this
talent provides.

Both Halo and Divine Star when talented, should be cast as
often as they will do group healing as they are both efficient and do a large
amount of healing.

3.3.4. Tier 7 Talents

Holy Word: Salvation is a potent raid cooldown that heals everyone within
40 yards of you, as well as applying both renew and 2 stacks of
Prayer of Mending to each. While this ability does have a very long
base cooldown of 12 minutes, each of your Holy Word: Serenity and
Holy Word: Sanctify casts reduce its remaining cooldown by 30 seconds.
Due to this interaction, it is important you aim to efficiently use those
holy words as often as practical to lower the cooldown of Holy Word: Salvation
when the remaining length of the encounter allows for a second cast

Apotheosis is a powerful cooldown, which you should save for
moments of heavy damage. Below, we list the spell sequences
you should use to maximise your healing-per-second.